Sports Marketing: Spotlighting The Blind Spot

There will be reams written about the bonanza that awaits broadcasters and streaming networks this year, with the IPL followed in quick succession by the T20 World Cup and the Olympics (with that other great entertainment spectacular called the General Elections thrown in between). It will be tempered with the usual cautions around slowdowns in this industry, that sector, the freezing-and-thawing of the funding winter for startups, the unchecked spending sprees of VC-fueled soonicorns and unicorns, the subpar creativity of most brand campaigns and the self-aggrandising outstandingness of other campaigns. There will obviously be vast punditry on display with the baal-ke-khaal level analysis of the failed and successful mergers in the media landscape that will affect all the wheeling and dealing.
Travel, tourism, hospitality and food brands will make lots of hay while the sun shines out of... well, let me leave that to your imagination.
And in the background, brand and marketing teams in all the advertisers’ offices, business and creative teams in advertising agencies, planners and buyers in media agencies, all kinds of influencers and de-influencers, and various other species of worker ants will be gearing up for endless rounds of hamster-wheeling.
In all of this, have you spotted what’s missing? Or rather, who?
You guessed right: the fans and the spectators. Or, as we like to call them in the business world, the consumers.
From the organising bodies (like the cricket boards) to the broadcasters and streamers to the advertisers, creators and disseminators, everybody is focused on squeezing every second of every advertisable gap in the sporting action to bombard consumers with advertising messages.
This is visible in every channel of interaction that features consumers in the mix: stadiums, fan parks and every kind of screen.
Consumers, or rather – let me switch back to what people would prefer to call themselves –fans flock to catch all the sporting action despite the lack of any ‘consumer-centricity’. I went to watch the Eliminator game in this season’s WPL in Delhi last month, enduring long queues to get into the stadium, uncomfortable seats, exorbitantly priced yet limited food and drinks because the fan in me was willing to overlook the fact that my experience was disdained by all the people ‘organising’ the event.
I have developed muscle memory to quickly tune in and out of the live action on screens because I know that the action will cut away to an ad any time a player twitches with some pain on the screen and a pause in the action might happen. Because I know I’m powerless to do anything else as a ‘consumer’.
So, where is all this talk about consumer-obsession and centricity from all kinds of savants on LinkedIn and other pontificating platforms when it comes to sports marketing?
It would be easy for the buck to be passed along. Advertisers might say, “Oh, but that’s the responsibility of the BCCI or whatever organising body.” Agencies might say, “Oh, advertisers should use their money muscle to negotiate a better fan experience with the organising boards.” And the organising boards will continue to just keep the bucks to themselves because they know the fans will come anyway.
What if advertisers and agencies could trigger a change here?
What if a fraction of the millions of advertising dollars being spent were to be invested in creating better and more rewarding fan experiences for the many (and not just for the few in an isolating fan box or the winners of a special promotional contest)? More convenient ticketing, better seats and stadium infrastructure, and better and cheaper food and drinks in stadiums, for example.
What if the promise of big data were to be used not to find more and more intrusive ways to interrupt sporting action but to enhance it? For starters, perhaps not have on-air commentators push advertising messages in the middle of their commentary (identified no doubt by someone like me as an ‘aperture innovation’). Use drink breaks and 'strategic time-outs’ in cricket matches to provide entertainment (even if it is ‘branded content’) that adds to the fun rather than intrudes into it.
Some football clubs in Europe are experimenting with making in-stadium attendance completely free for fans as a trade-off and reward for all the opportunities at-home audiences offer as monetisable advertising targets.
What if all the hype around ‘customer experience management’ was actually translated into truly delivering heightened fan experiences for individuals and groups and communities? Not just by team franchises but by the entire sports marketing ecosystem? Imagine an OTA chasing fans’ travel budgets and holding the BCCI or the IOA accountable for fans’ joy, given they are the ones getting fans to the events. Imagine the hospitality and F&B brands hungry for fans to consume their brands, making it better for fans to enjoy themselves before, during and after the sporting action without feeling buyers’ remorse outside of the sporting action.
These are just some of the possibilities that I hope the sports marketing ecosystem will look out for in 2024. As a fan, I’d be even more willing to give them my money.

(Narayan Devanathan, President and Chief Strategy Officer, South Asia, Dentsu Inc)